Tab Ramos Names 26-Player Roster for U.S. U-20 Men's National Team Training Camp in Florida

U.S. U-20 MNT Will Play Two Matches at Disney Wide World of Sports

U-20 MNTFeb 17, 2012

CHICAGO (Feb. 17, 2012) – U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team head coach Tab Ramos has named a 26-player roster for a domestic training camp from Feb. 20-March 1 in Clermont, Fla.

As part of the camp, the U.S. U-20 MNT will face the reserve teams from FC Dallas on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 4 p.m. ET and Montreal Impact on Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 10:30 a.m. ET. Both matches will take place at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex.

The squad is composed of six players born in 1994, with the rest born in 1993. The roster features four Development Academy players – Daniel Garcia, Alfred Koroma, Collin Martin and Andrew Oliver. A total of 19 total players having gone through the Development Academy during their career. Ten players are college players, with Seth Casiple and Christian Dean coming from California and Mikey Lopez and Boyd Okwuonu hailing from North Carolina.

Ten are signed to professional teams. Mexican side Santos Laguna was the only club to send more than one player, with Daniel Cuevas, Jesus Guzman and Benji Joya all representing the Guerreros. Juan Pablo Ocegueda comes from fellow Mexican Primera Division club UANL Tigres, and Victor Pineda and Omar Salgado come from MLS teams Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps, respectively. Villyan Bijev, Sean Cunningham, Matt Dunn and Kamil Kaminski all play in Europe.

Fourteen players are returning from the U-20 MNT’s January camp in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., including Cunningham and Salgado, who were both also on the roster for Ramos’s first camp in Duisberg, Germany. The other 12 players are Bijev, AJ Cochran, Daniel Cuevas, Garcia, Guzman, Koroma, Martin, Eric Miller, Ocegueda, Sean Okoli, Okwuono and Walker Zimmerman.

Ramos is preparing the U-20s for the 2013 CONCACAF U-20 Championship, which will likely take place in early 2013. The tournament will determine the region’s qualifiers for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup being held in Turkey from June 21-July 13. Every player on the roster is age-eligible for the upcoming U-20 World Cup.